Do the math Re: Medieval attitudes was Saving Harry

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 137820

-Nora:
> Good!Snape would also have been keeping up something of a front 
towards those of Voldemort's supporters who were free, no?  That's 
always been one postulated reason for his showy nasty behavior to a 
young Harry Potter, being as Voldemort was not back and active when 
Harry arrived at school.  If we have a Self-Interested!Snape,
playing  both sides as best he can, he's not under the same kind of
strain
as  your committed Evil!Snape.

Pippin:
Yes, he might have to go around saying things like "I only hope
Dumbledore doesn't make any trouble." He might want to project 
some tension with Dumbledore.

But the  real die hard supporters of Voldemort, the only ones who
would give any thought to Snape's loyalties, are in Azkaban or 
keeping deep cover themselves. They're not in a position to
investigate  Snape's loyalties the way Dumbledore is, with the 
possible exception of  Quirrell!mort and Fake!Moody. Both of them  
conclude that Snape is not an ally. 

Both Evil Snape and Outforhimself Snape have to fool all
the people all the time, for sixteen years. Good Snape can count on 
Dumbledore's  support, knowing that Dumbledore understands he 
has to maintain his cover. OFHS!Snape must constantly fear he will 
give too much away.

Who do you think has the better chance of success?

Nora:
> This is, of course, assuming that Dumbledore is correct in his 
> assertion that Snape switched sides *at great risk to Snape*.  If 
> Snape had been sent by Voldemort initially (as he asserts to 
 Bellatrix in ch. 2; is he lying or not?), then there is no such
great  danger, and quite possibly no initial ideological motivation.  

Pippin:
Huh? Whether his motive was ideological or opportunistic,  if  
Snape betrayed Voldemort in truth and not in seeming, he was at
great risk if discovered, whether Voldemort initially ordered him to
feign his defection or not. 

Without knowing what it was that really convinced Dumbledore 
that Snape had changed sides, or when it happened, it's impossible 
to say when Snape's conversion took place, if at all. But if it 
happened before Voldmort's downfall, as Dumbledore believes it 
did, then it seems Snape's motives can not have been entirely 
opportunistic. 

Unless you postulate  that  Voldemort ordered Snape to genuinely 
leave the Dark Side...
that's novel, certainly. But it hardly seems in character for
Voldemort.

Nora:
> I can't quite find all the canon to match, but I'm under the 
> impression that everyone else is having trouble making the timeline 
> for Snape's teaching at Hogwarts, defection, and everything else 
> match up exactly.  This could be 'ooh, maths', it could be a case 
> where it works if you tweak it one way (but without cold hard 
> evidence), or it could be deliberate.
> 

Pippin:
The cold hard evidence is that Harry ignored or forgot what
Dumbledore said in the pensieve.

Dumbledore is quite plain in his testimony to the 
Wizengamot. "he rejoined our side before Lord Voldemort's 
downfall and turned spy for us, at great personal risk."

And he's quite plain in his statement to Harry. "You have
no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he
realized how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy,
Harry. I believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and
the reason he returned--"

Snape gives the year but not the month that he started
at Hogwarts, and a lot of us assumed that it had to be post-October 
31, because  Sirius didn't know he was teaching there.
But Sirius had  other concerns than keeping himself 
informed about Snape or the Hogwarts faculty. That part is indeed 
tweakable.

But this is what Harry tells McGonagall.  "Then Snape told
Dumbledore that he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was
really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead." That's
a direct contradiction of what Harry himself observed 
Dumbledore saying in the pensieve. Now maybe it was
Jo's mistake and maybe it was Harry's but the contradiction
is not speculation, it's canon.

Nora: 
> I'll still be waiting to read your thematic revaluation of Lupin
when  he's not one of the prime factors for active evil, Pippin. :)

Pippin;
And I shall be waiting to hear yours if he is. : )

Pippin